The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to compensating for contact resistance asymmetry present in the connector interfaces to differential pairs in an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems often utilize differential signaling techniques to transmit signals between devices. Differential signaling operates by sending the same electrical signal as a differential pair of complementary signals, each in its own conductor (e.g., via differential trace pairs routed on a circuit board in the information handling system.) However, as the speed at which such differential signals are transmitted continues to increase, the performance of those the signals continues to degrade, and subtle parasitic effects that were previously negligible have begun to contribute significantly to that signal performance degradation. For example, Surface Mount Technology (SMT) connectors and their components are often mounted to connector pads on a circuit board that provide access to differential pair traces included in that circuit board, and those SMT connector/connector pad mountings are associated with a contact resistance. It has been found that, as the speeds at which the differential signals are transmitted via the differential pairs increase, asymmetric variations in the contact resistance in the SMT connectors/connector pads that provide access to a differential pair can introduce significant degradations in the signal transmission capabilities for that differential pair. Furthermore, signal integrity modeling may not capture the signal degradation resulting from such asymmetric variations in contact resistance, and that signal degradation will become more prominent as differential signaling speeds continue to increase. Conventional solutions to contact resistance asymmetry in differential pairs is limited to remounting the connectors to the connector pads, or screening circuit boards to ensure proper contact between connectors and connector pads, both of which increase time and cost associated with providing circuit boards.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a differential pair contact resistance asymmetry compensation system.